I just had a look at some of those websites, and I don't think the people who call it cowboy poetry are Australian.

Maybe some of the rodeo riders call themselves cowboys, because they associate themselves with the American rodeo scene, but as far as I know, they don't write poetry. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I know a lot of bush poets and they aren't cowboys. more likely these days that they live in the city or at least a country town, and just love that style of poetry, and are trying to keep the genre alive. In fact many of them write about urban subjects in the bush poetry style.

One who calls himself 'Blue the Shearer' is a good example. His real name is Col Wilson and he is an ex public servant. He writes about such things as the problems of using a chainsaw, or backing a trailer, or negotiating roundabouts, as well as the more usual bush-type subjects, and always in a humorous vein.

As for the more traditional ones, many were written about life in the bush and the outback, and there certainly are parallels between that and the American experience. However the men who rode horses and rounded up the cattle called themselves stockmen, not cowboys.

It's only a difference in terminology that I am talking about. Not all that important really.